The Square Root of Stupid
by kurgaya
Summary: Short drabble - no pairings - Ichigo was good at Math. Really he was. The fact that those stupid Hollow wouldn't leave him alone and his lack of sleep just meant he was terrible at it. Really.


**Note:** Really really short drabble which has _not_ been beta'd due to the massive amount of work my beta is currently swamped by. Ichigo is seventeen here. Winter War has not been concluded. Thanks to Kai-Chan94 for the prompt! And no cheating on tests!

This is not an IchiHitsu, but for all of you that read my stuff because of so, this _could_ be considered pre-IchiHitsu.

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><p><strong>The Square Root of Stupid<strong>

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><p>Ichigo must have fallen asleep sometime during his attempt at finding the volume scale factor of the pair of shapes hastily drawn in his Maths book for the screaming of his shinigami badge caused him to jerk so abruptly in his chair that it, and consequently he, toppled over and crashed to the floor. The wake up call was nothing short of affective though, but he still voiced him complaints as he picked himself up from the floor, abused headphones, lost pencil and all. The badge's freaky permanent grin mocked him as the grumbling teenager snatched it from the desk and pressed it against his chest, yet time he did not have to dwell on it. He began to rummage through the desk drawers in search of the sleeping lion plush – "Kon, wake up you lazy ass animal" – and commanded the toy to look after his body while he was gone. Kon's miserable expression upon being stuffed into the limp body mirrored the shinigami's, and Ichigo opened up the window with a grin on his face.<p>

"Do _not _attempt the Math homework," he ordered as an afterthought, half of his body leaning out of the window. His body, now with Kon inhabiting it, just shrugged, crawled onto the bed, and curled up like a cat with the hopes of getting some sleep.

Ichigo hoped to God that his body would not be in that position when he got back.

"Took your time, Kurosaki!" Ishida called over when he appeared into the middle of the fray, the remaining Hollow turning to face the newcomer as one. "Naught point six two miles in a kilo –"

"Shut your trap Ishida!" Ichigo yelled back, his dark reiatsu flaring out around him in annoyance. "I was _joking _when I said we could hunt Hollow and do Math at the same time!"

A smile tugged onto the Quincy's bony, fair-skinned face. No more words were spoken between the pair as the swarm of Hollow were taken out, but the occasional chuckle from the archer told Ichigo that his irritation was found amusing.

Orihime and Chad were both waiting for them on the pavement when the fight had been won, prepared to rush to assistance if they had been needed, and Ichigo landed beside the watching girl and held out his arm, a silence plea to heal the scratch from his wrist to his elbow. Ishida had come out of the fight much better off, having no injuries at all, and Ichigo snapped, "Well you're a long-ranger," when this point was rubbed in his face.

"Kurosaki-kun," Orihime scolded with a half-hearted glare. "Was that really necessary?"

She was probably hoping he'd say 'no' but he shot back a quick, "yes" that had her frown deepening. "Sorry Inoue-san," he added when Chad gave him 'the look' from behind her. "I didn't mean to snap at you."

He had meant to snap at Ishida though. She didn't comment on that again, so she had most likely realized this. Which was good, Ichigo thought, because he didn't have time to stand around and argue when his Math homework still needed to be done. It was going to take him ages, he was sure, Math always did.

"– session, Ichigo?"

Chad was saying something.

"Sorry, what?"

Ishida tutted, rolling his eyes, but Chad still looked as calm as ever, his fringe covering most of his face. "Are you going to Inoue-san's for the session tonight?" he asked again, nodding politely at the girl when she finished healing the shinigami's arm. She smiled back and Ichigo's confusion only grew.

Session? What kind of… session… were they…?

No. He didn't want to think about it.

"Er, no, sorry," he spluttered quickly, trying his best to prevent a blush from spreading across his face like his freckles. "Got Math homework to do." With that excuse he was gone, leaving three very puzzled teenagers in his wake.

Test day arrived without any warning, at least to the students it did, and at nine a.m. on a fine Tuesday morning the hundred and fifty-so sixteen and seventeen year olds found themselves packed into Karakura High's large assembly hall for the two hour paper. The rules had been explained and the threat of death if you were caught cheating had been bellowed across the room, reinforced by the thirty centimetre ruler slapping against on of the desks at the front of the room, and, at last, the tests were handed out. They weren't allowed to start until said so, so Ichigo (and many others) took this short time to check the back of the booklet for any questions on the back page, having once left the whole last four questions ignored when he hadn't done this.

That was not a mistake he would make again. Ever.

(Funnily enough that had been on his Statistics paper, but the back page of this Math paper was blank so it couldn't be a coincidence)

"You may open your papers now," came the order from the front of the room, causing a sudden rustle of paper against wood. "You have two hours. Begin."

The first question almost stumped him, like it usually did. It was always so unbelievably simple that Ichigo was sure he was doing it wrong, but writing a neat '36' on the line in the corner, he moved onto the next question.

Twenty minutes later he was frustrated. He was usually good at math, if you would believe it, and some of the questions did confuse him for a little bit – what they were asking for didn't always seem to relate to something he'd learnt, but Math was a strong subject for him. But the sheer amount of Hollows that had shown up in the past few weeks had left him virtually no time to study, (even with Ishida sprouting useless calculations at him every time they met) and the lack of time to do just that was showing. Painfully.

Skipping question seven because he couldn't remember how to do standardized form, he unwillingly turned the page to reveal the next two questions and promptly groaned at the shapes drawn on the page.

Shapes! He sucked at all things to do with shape!

He was going to fail!

Question ten was algebra though, and he loved algebra, so he dug through his mind for knowledge and began to scribble furiously. At least he would get this question right, he mused, spelling out 'F.O.I.L' in his head and expanding out the brackets, and it was worth – he checked – a solid five marks. That made him feel better. If he could do the hard stuff, then he could do the easy stuff.

Risking a glance over his shoulder at the threat of death to see how Chad was doing, he was surprised to see the large teen working quietly at his desk, his pencil flowing over the paper, not once pausing for a break. Hadn't Chad been as busy as him this week? When had he found the time to study?

Curiosity overcoming him, Ichigo searched through his pockets for a spare sheet of paper which could easily throw him out for cheating, and wrote a quick note, (cheating strike number two) passing it over his shoulder (and he's out!) It read: _How are you doing so well on the test?_ and he heard Chad pause in surprise.

He received an answer about five minutes later, and thankfully the teachers were far too busy arguing over something at the front of the room to notice. Written neatly under his own terrible handwriting was the reply:_ Hitsugaya-san has been helping us study since last Tuesday. Didn't he tell you?_

Oh. Maybe that's what Chad had meant by 'session'. Damn him and his over-reactive brain. Wait – snapped his brain, holding up a red flag. Tōshirō's good at Math? Since when has Tōshirō been good at Math?

He wanted to write that down and send the question over to Chad, demanding answers, but the humble giant had returned to his test paper and Ichigo didn't have the heart to make him fail.

Now that he thought about it, though, he could distinctly remember the white haired shinigami telling him through his haze of exhaustion that he'd been asked – or more like ordered – by Matsumoto to tutor the teens when she had learned through Orihime that they were being overwhelmed by school work and Hollow hunting. Racking his brain for a conclusion to that conversation, and the answer as to why he hadn't taken the genius up on his offer, Ichigo realized he must have fallen asleep at his desk – for surely that's where he would have been at the time of Tōshirō's appearance – and left the polite (somewhat, anyway) shinigami without an answer.

Great. Passing out was a _lovely _way to make a good impression. And he had passed out in front of Tōshirō – _Tōshirō of all people! _

He returned to his test feeling glum and embarrassed, vowing to talk to the taicho once the gruelling two hours were over.

He hoped Tōshirō wouldn't be too mad at him.

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><p><strong>End Note:<strong> Thanks for reading :D Sorry the ending's so abrupt, I was going to continue it but I got stuck there *shrug*


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